Mind-expanding books
github.com
Mind-expanding books
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: Mind-expanding books
#2I’m not convinced of the utility of lists like this, or the multitude of other Awesome JavaScript Yeahhhh!!! lists.
As one of the issues in the GitHub repository suggest, it seems all that is needed for a book to be considered “mind expanding” here is for it to have a Goodreads and/or Amazon rating higher than 4.
But what does that prove? There are people who rate Netflix’s Red Notice 10/10. Relative to those people, I think I’ve seen more intelligent forms of life swimming in the milk in my breakfast cereal.
I read half of The Compound Effect — one of the books in this list. It was trash. I’ve also read Sapiens from this list, and I certainly would characterise it as mind expanding.
Even from these two titles alone, I’d say the quality in the selection is far too variable. I think reviews are near enough useless unless you’re intimately familiar with the reviewer, and trying to curate the works in a collection like this by writing unit tests is probably futile.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#3A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson is fun — but it’s not exactly mind expanding. I know more about the Appalachian trail than before I read it, but that seems like a low bar.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#4I’m not convinced of the utility of lists like this, or the multitude of other Awesome JavaScript Yeahhhh!!! lists. As one of the issues in the GitHub repository suggest, it seems all that is needed for a book to be considered “mind expanding” here is for it to have a Goodreads and/or Amazon rating higher than 4. But what does that prove? There are people who rate Netflix’s Red Notice 10/10. Relative to those people,…
I'm on an Asimov binge right now. Just finished Foundation and Earth. So I jumped to the scifi section of the list and saw Ready Player One on there. I found that book mildly entertaining, but not a work of great literature, and certainly not mind expanding.
I agree with your sentiment about the importance of knowing the reviewer. I think using general popularity as a gauge is a good way to get the worst recommendations.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#5>Patrick rothfuss before lord of the rings
This has to be bait
Re: Mind-expanding books
#6I’m not convinced of the utility of lists like this, or the multitude of other Awesome JavaScript Yeahhhh!!! lists. As one of the issues in the GitHub repository suggest, it seems all that is needed for a book to be considered “mind expanding” here is for it to have a Goodreads and/or Amazon rating higher than 4. But what does that prove? There are people who rate Netflix’s Red Notice 10/10. Relative to those people,…
I'm on an Asimov binge right now. Just finished Foundation and Earth . So I jumped to the scifi section of the list and saw Ready Player One on there. I found that book mildly entertaining, but not a work of great literature, and certainly not mind expanding. I agree with your sentiment about the importance of knowing the reviewer. I think using general popularity as a gauge is a good way to get the worst recommendat…
> I think using general popularity as a gauge is a good way to get the worst recommendations.
Do you know a better way to get good recommendations? I am genuinely interested.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#7Here's a problem I have with books... Say, I want to increase my productivity. Then I found a number of books, each takes time to do and each sells THE way to increase productivity. Long story short... Weeks later I'm still busy reading books, while got more confused.
My approach is to just understand principles, and skip these kinds of books
Re: Mind-expanding books
#8I’m not convinced of the utility of lists like this, or the multitude of other Awesome JavaScript Yeahhhh!!! lists. As one of the issues in the GitHub repository suggest, it seems all that is needed for a book to be considered “mind expanding” here is for it to have a Goodreads and/or Amazon rating higher than 4. But what does that prove? There are people who rate Netflix’s Red Notice 10/10. Relative to those people,…
I once asked a bunch of my colleagues if they ever used one of these awesome lists and their answer was no. I asked the same group if they bookmarked, stared, or shared an awesome list before, and more than half of them said yes.
Whatever that means.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm on an Asimov binge right now. Just finished Foundation and Earth . So I jumped to the scifi section of the list and saw Ready Player One on there. I found that book mildly entertaining, but not a work of great literature, and certainly not mind expanding. I agree with your sentiment about the importance of knowing the reviewer. I think using general popularity as a gauge is a good way to get the worst recommendat…
> I think using general popularity as a gauge is a good way to get the worst recommendations. Do you know a better way to get good recommendations? I am genuinely interested.
I've had success looking up the book recommendation lists of people who I think are intelligent. For example, Bill Gates publishes a list of recommended reading. I know that Bill Gates isn't the sort of person who would waste his time reading crappy books. And even if he did, he would not waste his reputation recommending them to others. I'm not saying go read the books on his list (I have not). I'm just using him as a concrete example of smart people who recommend books.
To find recommendations for yourself: Think of a person that you respect. Then google "{name} book recommendations" That should get you some hits.
It's quite possible that if the person you respect is not too famous and busy, you could email them and ask for a recommendation.
# Regarding popularity
I can't speak with any actual authority on the matter of general popularity being a poor gauge other than my own observations that I've never been a fan of what is popular. I suspect that there are several people like me in that regard on this forum.
Re: Mind-expanding books
#10I’m not convinced of the utility of lists like this, or the multitude of other Awesome JavaScript Yeahhhh!!! lists. As one of the issues in the GitHub repository suggest, it seems all that is needed for a book to be considered “mind expanding” here is for it to have a Goodreads and/or Amazon rating higher than 4. But what does that prove? There are people who rate Netflix’s Red Notice 10/10. Relative to those people,…
We need a Netflix Prize but for books!